


Requisition

by TheLadyMagician



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Books, But mostly fluff, Fluff, Gifts, Interconnected oneshots, M/M, Snark, Unintended gifts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2015-10-05
Packaged: 2018-04-24 22:09:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4937161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyMagician/pseuds/TheLadyMagician
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started simply as a gift to a friend, but Cullen's not exactly sure when that changed. </p><p>For the prompt: Cullen keeps requesting books that Dorian mentions off-handedly and then forgets he said anything new about and they just show up in the library and Dorian’s trying to figure out who is getting all these books</p>
            </blockquote>





	Requisition

**Author's Note:**

> Just a few notes on the piece. The obsession from elfroot actually comes from a M!Inqusitior/Dorian one-shot that I wrote a few months back and never posted. I've been editing it to see if I can get it to standard, but meh. And Dorian's not a master chess player, nor does he make his moves without any thought. Instead, Dorian talks a lot during the chess game and while Cullen can multi-task, he's not a master at it. As long as Dorian is talking, Cullen moves his hands from chess piece to chess piece, telegraphing the moves he's going to make. So Dorian moving quickly isn't so much him not thinking, it's him watching Cullen's thought process and thinking about it at the same time. It's a rather unfortunate habit I had when I started playing chess and my chess club teacher took as much advantage of it that Dorian does :D
> 
> Also, my Latin knowledge is nonexistent. Any flaws in Latin are because I rifled through a Latin dictionary and thought words fit. Obviously, this is a dubious method at best.

"The library you Southerners have is barbaric," Dorian says as he captures Cullen's knight. Legitimately this time as well, no terrible slight of hand that the Commander simply doesn't mention. "Five shelves is not a library. It's a despondent reading nook in some poor peasant's hovel."

Cullen hums in his throat and stares at the chessboard. "Lavellan would be happy to requisition some books if the library is so sparse. She's been looking for any excuse to get out of Skyhold."

"She would run the army herself if she could. Do watch yourself, Commander, she may come after your job. Maker knows she already takes some from our soldiers. An entire day in the Hinterlands! And for what?! Just some bl-"

"Bloody elfroot," Cullen finishes for the mage. Despite the fact that Dorian and he had only played chess a handful of times, Cullen is well aware of what Dorian thought of being brought along for "fetching quests," as he likes to call them. "You've mentioned it before."

"Don't you have soldiers for this sort of thing? My robes were not meant for casual gardening."

"Or the cold," Cullen says as he nods towards the mage's bared shoulder. "Yet you still like to complain about it."

"I'll be long dead in this frozen Southern dirt before I take fashion advice from a man with a dead possum on his shoulders."

"It's a great bear."

"It's a great mess."

"Fine," Cullen replies as he finally moves his pawn. "Freeze to death. I'll be sure to cover your corpse with this cloak at your funeral."

"Now, now, Commander, you'll give people the wrong idea," Dorian says as he smiles at Cullen, that ridiculous moustache twitching on the mage's lips. "Not to mention that I'm quite certain my corpse would reanimate to tear the blasted thing off of me."

Cullen rolls his eyes as Dorian makes a hasty move on the chessboard. Despite the mage's predilection towards cheating and moving his pieces without seeming to think about it, Dorian and he have a fairly even winning record when the mage plays fairly. Cullen won't exactly say he's bitter about the record, but he is perhaps a little frustrated that the mage didn't seem to take the game seriously and could still beat him. 

"Have you organized the library?" Cullen asks as he resumes looking over the board, finger worrying at the tip of his knight. Dorian had just placed his Divine in perilous and open position, but Cullen couldn't risk taking her without a few of Dorian's knights advancing towards his King. If Dorian had even considered that. 

"What little there was of it. Maker forbid you have any books of real value. Did you know, Commander, that I cannot seem to find anything of Brother Genitivi here? Nevermind he's Ferelden's only claim to a scholar of any sort. None! But Andraste's tits, if you wanted to find out how to get a mabari to like you, we've got that in spades."

"Fill in a requisition request," Cullen says. With a hesitant hand, he moves a knight to encroach on Dorian's Divine. "Check." 

Cullen's fingers are barely off his piece before Dorian moves his Divine, hardly even looking at the board. "Oh yes, how well that will go. 'Resident Tevinter magister is bored and would like a copy of _Stone Halls of the Dwarves_ because Southerners don't know how to read, apparently. Not that you aren't fighting Venatori and the oncoming mass death of the world. Hugs and kisses, Dorian.' Wonderful priorities."

"Might be more fun than gathering elfroot," Cullen says with a smile. 

"Fasta vass! Do you know how many times we had to climb up that misbegotten hill?!"

The chess game lasts an hour longer with Cullen coming out the victor. Dorian meanwhile, regales him yet again with the story of Lavellan "accidentally" finding a dragon in the Hinterlands in her quest for elfroot. 

The next day, Dorian is called away to accompany the Inquisitor and Cullen finds himself without a chess partner. It doesn't matter as Cullen is absolutely drowning in missives and would probably need to cancel the chess match anyway. It's in the research of one of these missives over the next week where Cullen discovers a book in his personal library. _Stone Halls of the Dwarves_.

In the little downtime that Cullen gets, he drops the book off to the library, on the top of where Dorian traditionally keeps his stack of books. Weeks pass until Dorian arrives back with the Inquisitor and Cullen's completely forgotten about his gift.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you so much for reading! You can find me on [tumblr](the-lady-magician.tumblr.com) where I take prompts and reblog all the Dragon Age things! Also! You can find works like this weeks before I post them to AO3.


End file.
